GPS May Have Deterred Snow Plow Theft

In 2008, the City of Boston upgraded its public works vehicles to enable GPS tracking devices to be used throughout the fleet. Since snow plows were considered unlikely to be stolen, none of the 600 plows were equipped with GPS units. “The GPS program was not explicitly designed to be an anti-theft measure, like LoJack,” commented John Guilfoil, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

A snow plow was recently stolen.

Watchdogs and the Executive Director of the Boston Finance Commission, Matt Cahill, agree that “Any time you have an opportunity to remove any tempt­ation, it’s a great thing for the taxpayers to have that utilized.”

Police became aware of the snow plow having been stolen after a park ranger reported a plow being driving erratically in a parking lot. An employee confirmed that the City’s snow plow fleet was one truck short.

As the City of Boston knows, a GPS tracking system will help track fleet vehicles in real-time. A green GPS tracking system will track vehicles, including snow plows, and send out alerts when the vehicle is being driven erratically. Monitoring erratic driver behavior will save on fuel as well as prevent vehicle theft. In this case, it would have saved the City of Boston taxpayers.